GentJust because it’s exams doesn’t mean it has to be taken seriously. That’s why we asked some teachers which blunders of students they remember most, after taking exams for so many years. What notable answers or outliers still make them chuckle?
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If we are to believe the professors, most exams run very normally, but every now and then there is an outlier. “I have been teaching at Artevelde University College Ghent for seven years now,” says lecturer Frederick Roegiers. “As you know, the exams were conducted online during the lockdown. To do this, the students had to sit in a quiet environment. One student had taken that very literally: he was in a morgue. When he turned his laptop around to show that no one else was there, coffins were all around him. Later it turned out that his parents run a funeral home. For him that was a very logical place to sit, because it is literally dead quiet there, but for me it was a bit of a shock.”
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Professor Marc De Clercq, who has been affiliated with the economics department of Ghent University for many years, has also experienced a few things during oral exams. “I will never forget how my secretary brought me a cup of coffee when a student came in. Before I knew it, that student took my coffee to drink it without hesitation.” It was not the only time that De Clercq had lost his senses. “At the very beginning of my career, a student whose father was a baker came to take an exam. When I came out of my office, I saw four boxes of cake. The rest of the afternoon I handed out cake to the students who still had to take their exams.”
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Boycott
“I once had a student who had already had a bad episode several times,” De Clercq continues. “He didn’t want to leave. “I’m not leaving here until I’m through,” she said. So I just left: I went to examine another room. After a while, she kicked it off anyway.”
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Professor Marc Boone, who has been associated with the history department for many years, has also regularly frowned during oral exams. Something that came up regularly: students mixing up historical figures and events. “One of the classics is students who confuse Charlemagne and Charlemagne. When I confronted them about it, it didn’t matter much to them, even though there are several centuries between the two.”
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Nice try
“The drawings that some students left behind when they didn’t know the answer have stayed with me too,” said Boone. “Just like the personal outpourings. Such as: ‘I thought it was a very interesting subject, but I should have done it better.’” Recognizable for professor Stijn Baert, associated with the economics department of Ghent University. “Students often seem to use their scrap paper to relax. Some leave a drawing, others a personal message. Ranging from apologies for why the exam didn’t go as expected – ‘not your fault’ – to a friendly goodbye. A few exam periods ago, I even got some sort of request to go on a date.”
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Bloody honest
“I regularly ask questions to which I expect a long answer,” says Albert Glor, business software teacher at the Hogeschool Gent. “Questions such as: do you know the difference between x and y? I sometimes have to laugh when a student simply fills in: not really. I also regularly ask: what do you know about the future with these numbers? ‘The future is uncertain’, a student had once replied. Then you think to yourself: that is also true. It doesn’t give them any points, but it does put a smile on my face.”
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Students can be honest, Professor De Clercq has also remembered that. “I once had a student who emailed her that she couldn’t come to the exam because she had to watch her puppy. ‘My mother is not at home or else the dog will bite the seat’, it sounded. When I responded with, ‘You have to prioritize’, she simply replied, ‘Thank you for your understanding’.”
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Cake
“I was once asked by a student if I could provide cake during the exam,” Baert says. “It turned out that his birthday was on the day of the exam. I must admit that I had facilitated his request myself. Throughout the semester, I occasionally gave away cakes and sweets to students who were the first to write an answer to an earlier exam question on the board.”
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“Recently I was supervising an exam where it was written in cows of letters: any use of the telephone is considered fraud”, adds a teacher from the language center. “After half an hour, a student raised her hand. When I got to her, I saw that she was sitting with a ringing cell phone in her hand. She asked me if it was okay for her to answer the phone. When I asked if it was urgent, her answer was simply ‘no’, and that was it. She put her cell phone away again and continued with the exam.”
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Stress
“I haven’t experienced any earth-shattering blunders yet, but there have certainly been small accidents and pleasures,” says Baert. “I had a student who only realized after half an hour that he was taking the wrong exam. Or a student who hadn’t used his login details for years, so that they had apparently been put on hold. As a result, he was unable to register to participate in the computer exam. It took more than two hours and a half before he could start his exam.”
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Sometimes when emotions ran high, Professor Boone would sometimes ask his students to return later. “Then I sent them out for a few hours to get some fresh air. My predecessor brought out a whole battery of cigarettes to put his students at ease. That was when you could smoke everywhere. I offered coffee, but the few students who took it left it more often than they drank it.”
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